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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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September 2006
Modern science now offers parents a prenatal diagnosis for many physical and mental disablities. With the diagnosis comes the option of abortion. Joseph Walker knows first-hand that there is a better way.
Joseph Walker
I first heard the story about one of the developers of prenatal testing from Dr. Fawzy Morcos. “The man had seven children,” Dr. Morcos said, “and he often referred to the one with Down Syndrome as the jewel of the family. His motivation for working on prenatal testing was to help prepare parents so that they could better welcome a child with a disability.”
Dr. Morcos was at that time our obstetrician. He had a long career as a professor of medicine. With Alisa sitting next to me, I looked up over his desk at the wall covered with framed degrees, memberships in numerous scientific and medical associations, and awards of recognition. “A child with Down Syndrome might be a little less intelligent or clever than other children…” I forgot what he said next. Alisa and I were expecting the birth of our second child. Emily had been like a Christmas gift. This seemed to be Good Friday.
In the 5 years since Sarah Joy was born, I have become a bit more attentive to the various responses, in the Church and in the wider society, to issues concerning persons with genetic disability. A recent article by “C. Smyth” in the Globe and Mail, under the header “Facts and Arguments,” detailed one person’s decision to have an abortion based on genetic testing. Her prenatal testing revealed a condition known as triple X syndrome. At the center of the article was her key question: “Isn’t it more cruel to bring a child burdened with so many disadvantages into the world?” My heart goes out to the C. Smyths – those who are faced with an unexpected challenge, and come to know first hand the brokenness of creation. But what am I to say when our “national newspaper” decides to run such viewpoints for public consumption? It is not only the personal story of C. Smyth, but also a value judgment upon those already living with genetic disabilities.
There are really three responses to such a viewpoint. The Edmonton Down Syndrome Society has a new logo: “Forget the Myths, Get the Facts.” On one level there is a great deal of misinformation about persons with genetic disabilities. For a piece of writing under the header “Facts and Arguments,” the article contained little of either. The decision to abort was based on “searching the web” for information about triple x syndrome. Throughout the article, the language used was entirely negative: “seriously flawed baby,” “tragically flawed.” Toward the end of the article, the author writes: “I hate the sanctimonious people who have made this more difficult than it has to be…if you don’t want to keep a seriously flawed baby, you bundle your pain in guilt and shame.”
And it is here that I must pause and give the second response. It is not sanctimonious people who make this choice difficult. It is the people with genetic disabilities who make this difficult. It is their claim to full humanity, to be also made in the image of God, that should make it difficult. Our culture, and indeed our Church, are full of self advocates for a variety of minority groups. Unlike other oppressed minorities, those with genetic disabilities have few self-advocates. They do not stage demonstrations or run for parliament. They do not organize media campaigns or engineer public vocabulary. They do not file human rights complaints or challenge court cases. And so it is left for others to speak on behalf of the “least of these.” They too are human.
Beyond education, and beyond the “politics” of such issues, there is the response of the Gospel. I am sometimes surprised to hear of Christians who admire (and some of them have even read!) the writings of Henri Nouwen. We would do well to listen to him when he tells us who his teachers were: the disabled, the broken in mind and body. We as Gospel people need to become truly “pro-life,” which is not merely “pro-birth.” That means offering our support to them, their caregivers, their parents and families. Our Church needs to witness to the image of God in persons with genetic disability, including those not yet born. If we bring the good news of the Gospel, both in word and in deed, to the “C. Smyths” of this world, we might hear the echoes of Elizabeth to Mary: “when I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy” [Luke 1:44].
Joseph Walker is the Anglican Chaplain at the
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